Dorothy Vaughan: Mom, Mathematician, and Manipulator of

Abigail A. Gatsch

Historical Paper

Junior Division

Word Count: 2078

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In 1949 Dorothy Vaughan, a remarkably bright graduate and mother of four, was promoted to head of the West Computing Department at Langley Memorial

Aeronautics Facility. Dorothy was the third person to hold this position and the first

African-American to do so. In this role, she oversaw about twenty African-American women, called the West Human Computing Unit, who were researching and crunching numbers about flight and air travel. At this time, electric computers were in the early stages of development, so humans did the calculations.

Later, Dorothy found out that Langley, a subdivision of the National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), had recently received electric computers and wouldn’t need as many human computers. This put all of the women’s jobs, who were working in the

West Computing Unit, in jeopardy. Dorothy knew what these new computers would do to her and her colleagues’ jobs, so she decided that the West Computers would be the people to operate the electric computers. Her supervisors at Langley didn’t believe that the women of the West

Computing Unit could operate the machines, but Dorothy knew better.

Using whatever spare minutes she could find, she taught herself how to program and held meetings to teach the other people in her department the skills they needed to operate the new computers. Under her direction, the West Computers, a group of black women in 1950s

America, soon became some of the most proficient people in this brand new field, shattering the barriers of prejudice and proving that they were not only capable, but determined.

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Dorothy’s Past (Before Langley)

Dorothy Vaughan was born on September 20, 1910, in Kansas City, Missouri, and from a young age, her parents could tell she was smart. Although her mother died when she was two, leaving Dorothy to grow up in a motherless home, she learned to read before she started school.

Her teachers saw her potential as well so they advanced her two grades. Dorothy’s family moved to West Virginia when she was eight and she stayed there far into her adulthood. When she graduated from high school as valedictorian, she got a full scholarship to Wilberforce University.

She wanted to major in math, however, African-American women could hardly find jobs with that degree and her family was struggling. She decided to change her degree to be an Education major, as teaching was a stable job. At nineteen, she was already helping provide for her family.

Once Dorothy graduated in 1929, she began to look for work. She taught at Robert Russa

Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia. Most teachers don’t get paid well, but Dorothy was an African-American woman during the Great Depression, so she got paid even less. “Virginia’s white teachers ranked in the bottom quarter in public school salaries and their black counterparts might earn 50% less” .1 Because the pay was so low, teachers, especially African-American ones, often had to take summer and weekend jobs to make ends meet. Dorothy was no exception.

While working at one of these jobs, Dorothy met her future husband, Howard Vaughan. They later had four children: Ann, Maida, Leonard, and Kenneth.

1 , (New York: William Morrow, 2016), 11. ​ ​ ​ 3

Dorothy’s life was busy but fairly straightforward. She woke up early to plan her lessons, taught high school math until the afternoon, and came home and went straight into mom mode.

On Sunday, she went to church with her family. She had excellent friends and a good, if not rather simple, life. It was nice in Farmville, but one day she saw an ad. That ad would send her life in a completely new direction.

Working at Langley

In 1943, during WWII, Dorothy found an ad to help war efforts. The job was to wash soldiers’ uniforms. This would be a good, stable way to supplement her income. Next to this ad was a different ad, also to help the war effort but in a different way. It was a math job at Langley

Memorial Aeronautics Facility to make calculations based on data from flight experiments.

Dorothy thought back to how much she had enjoyed math in college and realized that this job would be an excellent opportunity to use her math skills. Not to mention that this job would pay a lot more than teaching ever could. Even though she didn't think she would get the math job, she applied for both.

Her timing couldn’t have been better. The recent signing of Executive Order 8802, early

June 1941, required Langley to hire more African-American workers. Executive Order 8802 says:

In the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation

can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all

groups within its borders…all departments and agencies of the 4

Government of the United States concerned with vocational and

training programs for defense production shall take special

measures appropriate to assure that such programs are

administered without discrimination because of race, creed, color,

or national origin. 2

This means that the United States now needed to hire workers of all ethnicities in any efforts that help with national defense, or the war. This order and the fact that more and more people were needed for calculations as the war progressed helped ensure that Dorothy, and several other

African-American women, were hired as computers at Langley.

The human computers’ job was to crunch numbers produced by experiments in the wind tunnels and other aviation testing sites. “Computers ‘read’ photographic films of the manometer readings, and recorded the data on worksheets”.3 Today, electrical computers do this job. You might think that the human computers used paper and pencil, and while the paper was used to jot down information, the computers often used calculator machines. The popular Monroe Model was used to help with the complicated mathematics.

Segregation and Separation

Because the West Computers were separated from the other white computers, a strong community was built within the unit. Many of the women would make friends they would keep for the rest of their lives. Dorothy became close friends with Miriam Mann and Katheryn

2 "Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of ... - Our Documents." https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=72. Accessed 28 Jan. 2020. ​ 3 "Human Computers | NASA." https://www.nasa.gov/subject/12330/human-computers. Accessed 28 Jan. 2020. ​ 5

Peadrew. They were close friends even when they moved on from langley and when NACA joined NASA.

Even though the bonds were close within the West Computers, the other people at

Langley didn’t quite like them that much. People like Margery Hannah, West Head, were renowned because they invited the West Computers to social gatherings. This was unheard of. People couldn't imagine expanding their social circles to include the West Computers, but they were nice at work. For the most part, no mean things were said to people's faces. Working with someone is very different than being friends with them. Bathrooms were still segregated, and they were not desegregated for a while. However, there is one story that shows how segregation affected computers.

Most of the computing groups ate lunch together out of habit, but the West Computers didn’t have a choice. There was one table designated for West Computers distinguished by a sign that read “Colored Computers”. The West Computers knew where they should sit and the sign was frankly embarrassing. So one day Miriam Mann stole it. She simply slipped the sign into her handbag. A few days later a new sign appeared. Miriam stole it again. It went like this over and over. Miriam stole the sign, Langley replaced it. Her husband, William S. Mann4, told her that ​ ​ she would get fired over the sign, but she didn’t care. Eventually, the sign disappeared and stayed gone.

4 "Miriam Daniel Mann was born in Covington, GA on July 25 ...." https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/d/d3/MannBio.pdf. Accessed 28 Jan. 2020. 6

Margot Lee Shetterly put how the computers were treated into words perfectly: “In the office, the women felt equal. But in the cafeteria, and the bathrooms designated for colored girls, the signs were a reminder that even within the meritocracy of the U.S Civil Service, even after

Executive Order 8802, some were more equal than others.”5 While they were working they felt equal. They did their work and so did everyone else. However, there were signs everywhere, telling them where to sit and where to go, which made them feel different, almost alien. “...some were more equal than others.”6

Promotions

Three years into the job she was promoted to a shift supervisor, along with Ida Basset and

Dorothy Hoover. She oversaw eight of the computers as well as doing her own projects. She had long shifts and often came home past midnight. Her bosses often reported excellent error-free work. Because of this she eventually got promoted to full supervisor, becoming the first

African-American manager at NACA.

Of course, machines would one day do all the work that the human computers once did.

Dorothy, upon gaining the knowledge that she and her fellow computers would be out of a job, promptly learned how to code, and began to teach the other computers as well.

The day finally came. The electrical computers were being rolled into the building. The

West Computing Unit finished up a final lesson on coding with FORTRAN, a common

5 Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures, 43. ​ ​ 6 Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures, 43. ​ ​ ​ 7 computing code language. As the machines entered the room, the African-American women explained to the white men in the room that they knew how to code and would gladly tell them how. The computers buzzed to life and after a few test-runs data was fed into them. These fast calculating machines run by ladies of color that lit up into a life that day were some of the most important items in that building at that time.

The human computers transferred around the time when NACA joined NASA, which caused most of the segregation in NACA to dissipate. Without the barrier of segregation, many of the West Computers rose to higher ranks. The former human computers continued to do complex calculations but worked with mechanical computers to do simple ones. These are the people who would eventually work to get to the moon. People like Katherine Johson and Mary

Jackson worked hard to make that happen, following the footsteps of Dorothy Vaughan, passing the barriers she broke to break bigger ones.

Executive order 8802 required African-American workers to be hired, which led to the rise of the importance of the West Computers at the NACA. This led to Dorothy moving to

Hampton and working at Langley. These were great strides of equality by themselves, even if

Dorothy wasn’t there. However, Dorothy helped lead African-American women within NACA that later joined with NASA, and that is what affects us to this day. Not only did she became the first African-American manager of the West Computing Department, but she taught the other computers how to code when their jobs were in jeopardy.

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We often discredit the work of people who weren't considered equal at the time. Dorothy stood up when she needed to. She had determination to break barriers by applying for both jobs, becoming a supervisor at Langley, for learning how to code, and for saving jobs, even when no one believed in her. We need more Dorothys in the world.

If Dorothy had not learned how to code, then what would have happened to the West

Commuters who couldn’t compete with machines? Dorothy saved their jobs which led to more integration once the NACA joined NASA. These mathematicians helped get to the Moon.

Dorothy left NASA in 1971 but, she left her everlasting positive mark. If we want the world to change we must tackle barriers that seem impossible to breach. The changes that Dorothy made were the first cracks in a wall that separated African-American mathematicians from equality and respect.

This topic shows us how much progress our society has made. It was only eighty years ago when segregation was so bad that someone repeatedly stole a segregation sign because of how humiliating it was to be separated from the group. It was only eighty years ago when humans called “computers” performed the calculations that machines perform today. It was only eighty years ago when Dorothy Vaughan was hired at Langley and rose in the ranks until she became an expert programmer. Our society is still far from being perfect, but it is important to see how far we have come.

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Dorothy Vaughan broke barriers because she was daring, passionate, and brave enough to stand up for what she believed in. She was a human-computer, already an accomplishment at the time. She also became the first African-American manager at NACA. Once NACA joined

NASA, she was a programmer in FORTRAN and began to teach the other human computers to code as well. She broke barriers of expectations, limitations, and accomplishments.

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Dorothy Vaughan: Mom, Mathematician and Manipulator of Computers

Bibliographies

Abigail A Gatsch

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Annotated Primary Sources

Works Cited

“Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941).” Our ​ Documents - Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry

(1941), www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=72 . ​ ​ ​ The our documents page for Executive order 8802 was mostly useful. As this document created

the events that lead to Dororthy being hired at Langley. It is defenity reliable, as it is from

the government and official record. It was accessible if you have the internet, though it did

take some searching to find.

Negro Women War Workers. Negro Women War Workers, United States Department of Labor, ​ ​ ​ 1945.

This source is a bulletin from 1945, around the time when Dorothy and a lot of other African

American workers came to the workplace. It was not very accessible as it is only in pdf.

form and I had to search for it though the bibliographies of other sources. It provided a

weird view of accepting women into the workplace, but not quite yet accepting them as

people. It is reliable enough to be used as a source and had it fair share of information.

NASA, NASA, crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Human_Computers#cite_note-10 ​ This source is also in my secondary source bibliography but I put it here not for the words said

but for the pictures. I tried to put it into different forms, but I couldn’t figure out how to

add pictures as a source so I’m, citing this website instead. It is very reliable, and

accessible. 12

Annotated Secondary Sources

Works Cited

NASA, NASA, crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Human_Computers#cite_note-10. ​ Nasa’s website on the human computers was very useful, as well as being very accessible to

those who have access to the internet. It is also very reliable. It is reliable, because it is an

official NASA website and as NASA is both the place where Dororthy worked and a

government facility, it is probably one of the most reliable sources. It had pictures and

outlines of what the human computers did.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Dorothy Vaughan.” Encyclopædia Britannica, ​ ​ Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Sept. 2019,

www.britannica.com/biography/Dorothy-Vaughan . ​ The Encyclopedia Britannica was very reliable. I know this because it is well known and is done

by professionals. It is very accessible to people who have an internet. It was useful as a

good overview, however, it lacked some of the depth I was hoping for. However it did tell

me the specific coding language Dorothy Vaughn became an expert in, which was

FORTRAN.

Loff, Sarah. “Dorothy Vaughan Biography.” NASA, NASA, 22 Nov. 2016, ​ ​ www.nasa.gov/content/dorothy-vaughan-biography . ​ The Biography for Dorothy Vaughan on the NASA website was pretty useful. It outlined a lot of

Dorothy's accomplishments and solidified a lot of dates, especially around the time when 13

the NACA joined NASA. It is very reliable and I know this because it’s NASA. NASA is

government-run and Dorothy worked there, so they have all her records. It is also really

accessible for those who have an internet connection.

Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures: the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black ​ Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. William Morrow, an Imprint of ​ HarperCollins Publishers, 2017.

Hidden figures by Margot Lee Shetterly was extraordinarily useful. It is really reliable, because it

is an accredited source throughout the historical community. It is accessible, most of the

libraries carry it and when it comes to books about this topic, it is always the first result.

This source gave me a lot about Dorothy's life leading up to Langley and what she did

there.